Daily Dose 08/08/08
August 8, 2008
»AsianWeek Market Report
»14 Reported Dead in Texas Bus Crash
»Chinese Spy Sentenced to 15 yrs in U.S. Prison
»Census Shows Spike in N.J. Asian Population
»Coin Set Aims for Asian Americans
»Chu Pushes for Overhaul of Assignment System
»Second Edition of Asian American Market Report Released
»Olympics Highlight Seoul-Beijing Emotional Dispute
»A Lucky Beginning for Chinese Newlyweds
»Gymnast Makes Team Last Minute
»U.S. Badminton Olympic Gold Medal Hopes Hang on Raju Rai
»Fascinating Family History for Olympic Diver Ishimatsu
Compiled by Beleza Chan and Steffi Lau
AsianWeek Market Report
| AsianWeek Market Report | ||||
| Asian Stock Indexes | ||||
| NIKKEL_225 | Tokyo | 13,168.41 | 43.42 | 0.33% |
| HANG SENG | Hong Kong | 21,885.21 | -218.99 | -0.99% |
| KRX | Busan | 3,246.59 | 1.80 | 0.06% |
| SSE IX | Shanghai | 8,658.78 | -376.51 | -4.71% |
| BSE | Bombay | 15,167.82 | 50.57 | 0.33% |
| HOSE | Ho Chi Minh | 444.28 | 5.45 | 1.24% |
| SET | Bangkok | 690.70 | -14.65 | -2.08% |
| Asian American Market Report | ||||
| Yahoo! | YHOO | 19.89 | -0.30 | (-1.49%) |
| Citigroup | C | 19.38 | 0.91 | (4.93%) |
| Amkor Technology, Inc | AMKR | 8.98 | 0.19 | (2.16%) |
| Sybase | SY | 36.10 | 1.62 | (4.70%) |
| UnionBancal Corp | UB | 57.17 | 2.49 | (4.55%) |
| East West Bank corp,Inc | EWBC | 13.95 | 0.49 | (3.64%) |
NATION
14 Reported Dead in Texas Bus Crash
A bus carrying a group of Vietnamese Catholics on their way to a pilgrimage plunged off a Texas highway early on the morning of August 8, leaving at least 14 people dead and scores more injured.
The accident occurred just after midnight near Sherman, Texas, about 60 miles north of Dallas, and may have been a result of a blown tire, although local police are still investigating the cause, according to local press reports.
The bus had been chartered by members of two Houston churches who were traveling to Carthage, Mo., site of an annual gathering of Vietnamese Catholics known as Marian Days.
Angel Tours, the Houston-based company that owned the bus, was barred last month by federal regulators from making trips across state lines after several safety violations. The company has an ‘unsatisfactory’ safety rating from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
- The New York Times
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Chinese Spy Sentenced to 15 yrs in U.S. Prison
WASHINGTON - A Taiwan-born American who admitted spying for China was given more than 15 years in prison, the U.S. Justice Department said recently.
Tai Shen Kuo, 58, of New Orleans, was sentenced by federal court in Virginia to 188 months in prison and required to forfeit 40,000 dollars, after he pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to deliver U.S. military information to China.
Kuo was charged as a part of a small ring that included a Chinese woman, Yu Xin Kang and former Pentagon analyst Gregg Bergersen, who obtained secret information mainly on U.S. military sales to Taiwan and U.S. military communications security and sought to provide the information to Beijing.
The three were arrested earlier this year in the case, which spanned from March 2007 to February 2008, when the three were arrested.
- AFP
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Census Shows Spike in N.J. Asian Population
According to estimates released Aug. 7 by the U.S. Census Bureau, Asian Americans are the fastest growing ethnicity in New Jersey.
The Census puts the state’s Asian American population at 643,855 as of July 1, 2007, a 32 percent increase over what it was in 2000. Every county in the state has seen a double-digit increase in its Asian American population during that time, ranging from Essex County’s 10 percent bump to the 113 percent rise in Warren County.
And it is being fueled by a large number of overseas immigrants who have found a home in New Jersey and are having children at a higher rate than the native population.
Asian Americans are also starting to make their numbers felt politically. Jun Choi, who is of Korean ancestry, is now mayor of Edison, the state’s sixth largest city. In 2002, Upendra Chivukula (D-Somerset) became the first Indian American elected to the Assembly.
-Nj.com
BAY/CALIFORNIA
Coin Set Aims for Asian Americans
SAN FRANCISCO - Niche marketer Uncle Sam came west on Wednesday to shill shiny coins to Asian Americans, hoping to turn Olympic Games fervor into solid-gold fever.
Opening the federal Mint building here to a rare glimpse of coin proof-making, U.S. Mint Director Ed Moy announced a set of commemorative gold coins tagged to Aug. 8 - 8/8/08 - the Friday start of the Olympic Games in Beijing. In Cantonese, eight sounds like a word that means “prosper” or “wealth.”
The Mint calls the pair of newly packaged half-ounce gold coins - a 24-karat American Eagle and a 22-karat Buffalo - its Double Prosperity Set. And for good reason. The wood-encased pair goes for nearly $1,300. Moy, the first Asian American to head the Mint, called it an ethnic-based pilot project inspired by the “huge success” of February’s release of a 1-ounce American Buffalo coin for Lunar New Year.
Moy said the Mint may target other groups - possibly African Americans and Latinos - but needs to gauge their taste for pricey coinage.
- San Jose Mercury News
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Chu Pushes for Overhaul of Assignment System
SAN FRANCISCO - District 4 Supervisor Carmen Chu will urge the San Francisco Unified School District to revamp the school-assignment process at a hearing today.
Chu wants the school district to allow parents to send their children to neighborhood schools. Chu’s district includes the Sunset district, where the high-demand schools, like Lowell, are located at.
A group of parents is circulating a petition to protest the district’s handling of the assignment situation.
- The Examiner
ARTS/ENTERTAINMENT
Tila Tequila Falls Out of Love
The provocative 26-year-old reality television star told celebrity magazine In Touch Weekly she wants out of a third season of A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila.
Tequila said she wants to move on from the popular show to pursue other interests.
The program centers on bisexual Tequila and a motley crew of male and female contestants who compete for the affection of the Asian American calendar girl. Eventually, Tequila chooses a lover.
In last season’s final episode, Tequila picked Kristy Morgan - a former Playboy model - as the season winner, only to have Morgan reject Tequila’s romantic advance.
-Reuters
COMMERCE
Second Edition of Asian American Market Report Released
LOS ANGELES - Phoenix Marketing International announced the second edition of its award-winning Asian American Market Report, produced in partnership with Interviewing Service of America for Fall 2008. The study illustrates similarities and differences among Asian Americans and provides strategies for reaching this lucrative market with a powerful cultural connection.
“This segment is one of the fastest growing in America and represents a significant consumer force,” stated Raul J. Lopez, President of Phoenix Multicultural. “They have the highest incomes, are the most educated, highly professional and geographically concentrated.”
Findings show that more than three-quarters of Asian Americans identify themselves with their country of origin rather than by the term “Asian American.” The report covers demographics, culture, shopping behavior and media usage to provide the most comprehensive resource available in today’s multicultural marketing industry.
GLOBAL
Olympics Highlight Seoul-Beijing Emotional Dispute
BEIJING - In the aftermath of Chinese student protests in the Seoul leg of the Olympic torch relay, a Korean reporter in Seoul, who covers China affairs, received an urgent late-night call from a Chinese reporter working for the Beijing-based Global Times.
In that torch relay, the violence by the Chinese mob in Seoul was bad enough that the Seoul government had to take it up with Beijing officially on a diplomatic level.
The Chinese reporter at that time called the Korean reporter in Seoul to confirm the alleged “news,” shown on the Chinese internet that some of the Chinese students responsible for the violence had received a heavy 10-year prison term in Korea.
Alarmed, the Korean journalist did some quick fact checking around the news desk, thinking that someone else had written it. If so, it would have been quite shameful since he was the person in charge of China stories.
His search effort went unrewarded because there was no such article.
Unfortunately, that was not the end of it. This week, while all Chinese attention is focused on the opening of the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese internet is once again full of blogs taking issue with Korea.
- The Korea Times
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A Lucky Beginning for Chinese Newlyweds
Had one more Chinese couple married at the High Court in Hamilton yesterday, Ming Zhao and Xin Dong would’ve had all the eights.
The bride and groom, who have been together for nearly eight years, were the seventh Chinese couple to marry at the city’s Registry Office on the eighth day of the eighth month of 2008, and the same day the first ever Olympic Games to be held in China kicked off in Beijing.
Xi Zhu, spokesman for the Waikato Chinese Students and Scholars Association, said eight is considered a lucky number in China because its pronunciation is very similar to words meaning fortune, prosperity and wealth. Mr Zhu said he wasn’t surprised by reports of large numbers of Chinese people buying lottery tickets yesterday, and he hoped to pick one up himself.
- Walkato Times
OLYMPICS
Gymnast Makes Team Last Minute
“Mom, I made it. I can’t believe it,” Raj Bhavsar, 27, exclaimed on the phone minutes after his name was announced in the United States gymnastics team for the Beijing Olympics.
Houston-based Bhavsar got the call on Wednesday from the U.S. Gymnastics Association after fellow gymnast Paul Hamm, gold medallist at the 2004 Games, withdrew from the squad due to injury. Bhavsar was quoted in U.S. media on Thursday: “I trust that he (Hamm) made the right call for the team, and I’m going to go with that and fill those shoes.”
Bhavsar, who has a degree in marketing, bagged silver medals at the world meets in Gent, Belgium (2001), and in Los Angeles (2003). As a teenager, Bhavsar won a gymnastics scholarship to Ohio State University at Colombus and led his team to the prestigious NCAA team title in 2002.
Bhavsar was an alternate for the 2004 Olympics and contemplated retirement but returned to Houston from Columbus, Ohio, to train with U.S. Olympic coach Kevin Mazeika.
-India Times
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U.S. Badminton Olympic Gold Medal Hopes Hang on Raju Rai
America’s hope for a men’s badminton singles’ Olympics gold medal rests solely on the racket of Atlanta native Raju Rai.
“It has been my dream since I was five years old to one day play in the Olympics,” Rai told India-West on the eve of his flight to Beijing, where the Olympic Games will be played Aug. 8-24.
Does Rai believe he can win a gold? “For me, any color medal would be fine,” he said. “I’m just happy to be playing for the U.S. at the games.”
The U.S. badminton team members for the 2008 Olympic Games - who will compete in men’s and women’s doubles and singles’ events - are Howard Bach of San Francisco; Eva Lee, of Orange, Calif.; Bob Malaythong of Rockville, Md.; May Mangkalakiri of Garden Grove, Calif.; and Rai.
-India West
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Fascinating Family History for Olympic Diver Ishimatsu
Haley Ishimatsu, a 15-year-old diver, is representing a country that confined her grandparents and dropped an atomic bomb on her ancestors’ hometown.
Haley is a fourth-generation Japanese American. Her U.S. teammate in the synchronized platform event is Mary Beth Dunnichay, a 15-year-old from Elwood. At the Beijing Olympics, they will compete for a medal Aug. 12.
Haley’s grandparents were among 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry sent to internment camps soon after Japanese warplanes bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
Haley’s paternal and maternal grandmothers were teenagers living in California at the time. The Ishimatsu family was sent to Jerome, Ark., and the Kitaharas to Gila, Ariz.
Haley did not hear stories from that era. Her father said that generation almost never discussed it.
“I’m really just an American,” Haley said. “All the Japanese traditions have kind of faded away.”
- Indy Star
Comments
6 Responses to “Daily Dose 08/08/08”
Got something to say?
“Chinese Spy Sentenced to 15 yrs in U.S. Prison”
That’s a warning to Frank Eng, although, at age 90, he’s unlikely to serve out the term.
“AsianPresident”:
Just WHO the Hell ARE you:
Step out from behind your a.k,a., which well could stand in for ass.kissers.anonymous.
First of all, I may be “Chinese” by er, ah, “blood”?, but I am, sad to say, 99.44% “American” as well, native-born to the best AND the worst of this “nation” of “immigrants” and self-styiled “patriots.”
I say it “sadly” because I find MY “America” far too shallow, superficial, prone to pretensions of every stripe, INCLUDING “patriotism.” Worse still, juvenile and arrogant and destructive, as in warlike and war-loving, whether in the name of “hegemony” OR oil.
Even though, simultaneously, I find my America the salt of the earth, the hope of humankind, the best of neighbors and the most open and welcoming of fellow citizens. Despite the presence of haters and baiters and the dregs of society. Which latter obtain in EVERY society?
The first, however, in my personal experience, appear to outnumber, certainly outweigh, the latter, but it’s the latter I cherish and embrace as true brothers and sisters and landsmen, of whatever color or creed, so long as the “creed” does NOT exclude others willy-nilly and consign them to perdition, of one belief or another. Worse still, physically assault or torture or maim or kill.
“Spy:?
C’mon. This life, such as it is and has been, is an open book. And the fact of the matter is that, despite this administration’s blank check to designate even citizens as “enemy” types, the FBI would have a hard time denying THEY “spied” on ME way back midcentury last, and shot down my brief and tiny course as a journalist in Los Angeles.
I don’t matter. I freely admit the obvious.
But, “AsianPresident,” I repeat, WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?
That said, I could care less WHO disagrees or lights my fires or those of anyone else.
Wen-ho Lee served but a year or so? In leg irons at that, and that Florida professor who is now serving the beginning of a third? year, not to mention the prisoners at Gitmo who served six, ongoing?
These are NOT the hallmarks of a “great power” and a “great nation” of “democratic” distinction.
And, YOU, “AsianPresident” presume to represent such likes?
“They” are scrambling to meet the exigencies of a “worldnet” that is laps ahead of them, and they are mired in the “cold war” fantasies of generations past, even as they foment bonfires of regional and local discontent around the globe. The CIA, that is. The FBI, theoretically, are purely domestic, although it would appear they sometimes indulge in infighting, as for funding and perks AND turf.
So, “AP,” never fear, a single citizen here. What damage can I do? What monkeywrench can I toss into the mechant mechanisms of machismo that is this current adminstration, and that which promises to continue, whomsoever is elected come November, if Obama’s utterances about the “Georgia/South Ossetia” brouhaha have been accurately reported.
Frank Eng
P.S.: Did you watch the NBCoverage of the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics?
I did, and from what I could see of it, I take back 99.44% of my previous conceits about same. Not quite all, because the Olympics STILL do NOT impinge on the lives of 99.44% of humankind on this globe.
That said, what a SHOW!
Zhang Yi-mou is a painter at heart. A graphic artist. An eye for the sweep and the scope and the composition. Of course, he had the resources of a nation at his disposal. But those who would compare tonight’s SPECTACLE, no other word for it, to that of Riefenstahl and the Nazis of ‘36 are as mistaken as you, “AP.”
Chauvinistic at heart? Well, yes, AND no.
Esthetic and humanist? A resounding Yea-say.
I particularly dug the little kids in native dress ‘carrying” the “flag,” THEIR flag, even IF they were succeeded by strutti ng soldiers.
No, “AP,” and whythell would evwn YOU want to be er, ah “president,” lower- OR uppercase as the case may be?
For the glory? The money that ensues as in Clinton mils? Or the perks? Swanning into a “drawing room” as the cynosure of all eyes? What an aspiration. As in, “duh.”
Final? word here: It’ll be a long time in or out of Hell before someone can conjure up a spectacle as stunning as tonight’s in the “Bird’s Nest” stadium.
I just hope it was filmed, taped?, multicamera and multi viewpoint, to be DVD’d . I’ll buy one, Provided it’s not the price of an opening night ticket sor the airfare
thereto.
Oh, and yes, “AP,” kiss this ancient butt, as the kids would say?
P.P.S.: Nota bene: the NBC commentator’s note of Dubya bnnding Putin’’s ear, or vice versa. If they can’t solve the Russia/Georgia “crisis” there, then God help the rest of us with a new Kosovo/Serbia round, but, this time, the setting is further East, and sheer pragmatics would deem this a tougher box within a box within a conumdrum.
Oh, and one more thing.
I have “news” for you, to wit:
None less than NewsWeek proclaims online today that the mere single per-centum of ye population may well serve as the er, ah. “swing” vote come November — including FLORIDA, where the anti-Castro crowd is still screaming anathema at the dying Fidel.
Yeah, you refugee Nguyen Cao-ky types please take note of the fact that said Fidel has outlasted how many? four-year “adm;inistrations”? going back all the way to the Kennedy’s and before? Also, note Fidel’s empathy for BOTH Kennedy bros, unlike those likely to have done them in.
I doubt November will prove 80/20, either way, but I also doubt the “Chinese” vote here will come close to your hopes and dreams, forget the API vote.
Aind, btw, “AP,” have you ever heard tell of the “Soul on Ice,” the mirror image of souls-on-fire. At least both are “better” than “souls” who azrrogate and demean and destroy and make mock of humanity and humankind.
Like “thee”?
And I noticed that the Mainland cadres in tonight’s show of shows, at the climactic song duo, “You and Me”?, placed the thou before the I, which one-ups even that mensch of a philosopher who wrote “I and Thou,.”
Forgot to add:
The FBI is not really interested in “spies” per se, they only care about the “press,” as in media, and the “spin” as in manipulation.
They already “know” what they know, since they have “plants” everywhere, and the object is “control,” in my tiny case, mere silencing.
They “succeeded” in silencing a generation of dissidents midcentury last, but they will have a prob with today’s, insofar as they have yet to muzzle blogs and such.
I note that MSMedia online today headlined a “denial” that the CIA was/is involved in some nefarious plot/ploy somewhere on the globe. The denial itself proves more than pertinent.
And, oh, yes, what goes around comes around? It is similarly “reported” that some “respectable” “Christian” sect/group in Colorado yet have issued a manifesto to the faithful that it’s McCain who may be the “anti-Christ.”
Wow. Talk about monotheistic scholarship AND theoreticians.
So, “AP,” though I am only rapidly approaching a mere 89, so long as you continue to drool your drivel here, so you inspire me to insist on eking out the full 15 years of my “sentence”? And are you even faintly aware that imprisonment can be much more and much less than mere prison and bars? Like your mindset?
Sen. John McCain sent his condolesences to the family members of the Texans who lost their lives enroute to Marian Day gathering in Carthage Missouri. His letter was also published in the NGUOI newspaper on 8/8.
Dear Friends,
I send greetings to the many Vietnamese American Catholics observing the Marian Day celebration in Cathage, Missouri. Marian Day is an important pilgrimage gathering and a time to remember the common values that binds us together. Our society is enriched by the contributions of Asian Americans whose commitment to faith reminds us of the gift of religious freedom in our country.
As a former prisoner of war under a communist regime, I have fought for human rights wherever human rights have been violated. I have an unmatched record of supporting religious freedom and human dignity throughout the world.
I send my best wishes for a blessed Marian Day, but I am also deeply saddened to hear of the 13 deaths and injuries caused by a traffic accident that struck an incoming group from Texas on Friday morning. Please allow me to offer my deepest condolence to all their family members.
God bless you and I thank you for your support.
John McCain
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